Don Zimmer has no idea where the rumor that he was going to be named Lou Piniella’s bench coach originated.
“I have never talked to anybody from the Devil Rays,” Joe Torre’s bench coach of eight years told The Post last night from his Westchester County home.
Zimmer made it clear there was no chance he could be talked into coming back to the Yankees.
“No, not in New York,” Zimmer said when asked if he was through working for George Steinbrenner.
Last Thursday the rumors about Zimmer joining Piniella in St. Petersburg started circulating after Zimmer taped an MSG show with former Jets QB Boomer Esiason.
“He asked me if I knew Piniella and a I said, ‘I worked for him,'” Zimmer said. “That’s the only thing I said to him about that. All of a sudden I am going to work for the Devil Rays. When I heard about the rumors I called [Devil Rays GM] Chuck LaMar to tell him I didn’t know where that came from.”
When Zimmer’s dinner plans with Torre were cancelled Thursday night, Zimmer decided to head to New Hampshire where his granddaughter was playing in a high school field hockey tournament.
“Two coats, an umbrella and the standing in the mud, it was something,” Zimmer said. “I got home [Sunday night] and I had 15 messages congratulating me for getting a job with the Devil Rays and I didn’t know anything about it.”